Lindenfors Patrick - God probably doesnt exist: a book about not believing in Gods

God probably doesnt exist

Patrick Lindenfors Vanja Schelin

A book about not believing in Gods

FRI TANKE

Free Thought Publishers
Fri Tanke frlag
www.fritanke.se

Original edition Gud finns nog inte published by Fri Tanke frlag 2008

Patrick Lindenfors 2008, 2011
Illustrations Vanja Schelin 2008, 2011
Translation Patrick Lindenfors
Editor Christer Sturmark

Printed in Latvia by Livonia Print, Riga 2011

ISBN 978-91-86061-37-1

To my children.

What does it mean to not believe in Gods?

Some people believe in a man in heaven who can do whatever he wants.

Others believe in a woman in heaven, or several men and women together. They have names such as Jehovah, Thor, Isis, Allah, Zeus, or Kali and they are called Gods.

There are also those who believe that God is an invisible force that sees and hears everything. Or that God is love.

But it is also perfectly possible not to believe in any of all those Gods.

This book is about not believing in God.

The first humans on earth were like all other animals and saw the world in the same way as all other animals see the world.

But the human brain evolved and made us able to think about things we dont see. We learned to plan and fantasise, tell stories and understand what would happen if we did one thing instead of another.

Then one day perhaps someone had a hard time keeping reality and fantasy separate. Or maybe one person boasted that he had a magic force on his side.

The first person to invent a God, at the same time made everyone else into non-believers.

It is still that way; everyone is born a non-believer. To believe in a God is something that you have to learn. The person who teaches you determines what God you will believe in. (If you dont invent a God for yourself.)

But you can also say I dont believe in any Gods.

Some people say that it as much a belief to not believe in Gods as it is to believe in Gods.

But that cant be right? It isnt as much a belief not to believe in trolls as it is to believe in trolls or to not believe in unicorns as to believe in unicorns.

Just because someone invented a God, doesnt make everyone else equally much believers.

That is as strange as to say that not playing football is just as much a sport as it is to play football.

It is hard today to find people who believe that old Gods such as Thor, Zeus or Ra exist for real.

Many people in the Western world believe in the God of Christianity. People who live in India usually instead believe in several other Gods. Those people are called Hindus.

Those who believe in the Christian God seldom also believe in the Hindu Gods. So they are non-believers when it comes to the Hindu Gods.

No one believes in all Gods. (No one even knows the names of all Gods.) Most people believe in almost no Gods.

People who do not believe in any Gods just add one more God to the list of Gods they dont believe in.

Many things exist only in peoples imagination. For example fairies in the garden or gnomes inside your calculator who do all the calculations.

Maybe you have stopped believing in Santa Claus? You probably never believed in trolls.

It is a good idea to think about why you believe in some things but not in others.

Dont believe anything that you dont have a good reason to believe!

This applies even to Gods.

There are no special books written about not believing in trolls. If you invent a fantasy character of your own, no one will write a book saying that it is not for real. So why is it something special not believing in gods?

Probably because it is so common to believe that there exist gods of some kind. Many people around the world believe in gods. But only because a lot of people believe in something does not mean that it is true.

A long time ago many people believed that the earth is flat.

But it isnt.

There are many tales of how Gods created the world. Some of them are collected in books such as the Bible and the Koran.

People who do not believe in Gods do not believe that any of these stories are true. Instead, many non-believers are curious about how the world works for real. That doesnt mean non-believers do not like tales and stories only that they dont believe the stories are true.

Scientists today have concluded that the universe began almost 14 billion years ago. The material that the earth and we people are made of was created in stars that later exploded.

You are made of stardust!

Life on earth began about four billion years ago. After that, life has evolved into all the animals and plants that we can see today.

Everything that lives on earth is related!

Who needs made-up stories when reality is that fantastic?

(But how do we know that reality is real? That is a difficult question demanding a long answer; about as long as this book. Briefly, reality is what we can show each other. It is possible to show someone how we know when the universe began and how we know that everything that lives is related. But it is impossible to show someone paradise, or gods.)

The worlds three largest religions

Those who call themselves Christians believe in one God and that God sent his son down to earth. The son, whose name was Jesus, was also God. Since Christians only believe in one God, the Christian God must have sent himself down to earth as Jesus.

Christians say that Jesus mother was Mary, a virgin made pregnant by God through an angel. Jesus could do fantastic things such as walking on water, healing sick people by only touching them, making water into wine, resurrecting dead people and making some fish and bread last enough to satisfy a whole crowd.

Jesus was nailed to a cross and died, but he became alive again after three days and flew to heaven.

That Jesus came to earth, was crucified, died and became alive was Gods way of saying I forgive you.

Christians believe that Jesus will come back to earth to judge the living and the dead. Those who believed that Jesus was God will live on in paradise. Those who believed that Jesus was an ordinary human, or perhaps didnt even exist, will burn forever in hell; even if they were good people when they lived.

Those who call themselves Muslims believe in a God whom they call Allah (which means God in Arabic) and that Muhammad was Allahs last messenger.